Tutor
by starkwaters
Summary: Arya is failing Linear Algebra and she has no one to help her. Ned Stark asks Robert Baratheon's son, Gendry, to tutor his daughter and different events ensue. Modern AU one-shot that turned out to be longer than originally planned.


**A/N: This basically happened because of my own failure with linear algebra and wishing that I had my own Gendry to tutor me. Oh, and I felt the need to add the "nice oak tree" scene seeing as though it's doubtful we'll get it on the show. Hope you enjoy and reviews are appreciated :)**

* * *

Arya had the urge to throw her maths textbook to the floor and just be rid of it. Instead, she slammed it shut and set it aside next to her on the bed. If there was one thing she hated it was linear algebra. She was failing and, unfortunately, her parents were noticing. Someone knocked on her bedroom door in the same moment that Arya flopped down on her bed and when she groaned, "Come in," her pillow muffled her voice. Ned Stark entered the room, crossed through the various clothes that were discarded around Arya's bedroom floor, and sat down on the bed next to her.

"How's the studying going?" He asked and Arya looked up to see the hint of amusement in her father's eyes. Arya frowned.

"Terribly." She snapped.

Ned didn't say anything and just picked up the textbook and flicked through it.

"I wish I could help you with this, Arya." He said, finally. "But work has gotten so busy lately and I've been so tied up,"

"I know, dad –"

"I'm not finished," he said, raising an eyebrow, "_I _can't help you, so, your mother and I have decided that it's best to get you a tutor. We've organised for someone to help you."

Arya considered this. Maybe it would be good if someone could help her with the work. Arya figured that she was pretty independent. She didn't have all that many friends and, growing up with such a large family, appreciated some solitude. Asking for help wasn't something that she liked doing but her options were looking slim.

"Fine. Who?"

Ned gave her a pointed look before saying, "Robert Baratheon's son."

"No!" She protested incredulously, "You _know_ I hate Joff–"

"Not Joffrey,"

"Tommen? He's only fifteen! That's two years younger than me! Dad–"

"Not Tommen, Gendry."

"Gendry? Robert doesn't have a son named Gendry." Said Arya, furrowing her brows.

"Yes, he does. He's twenty-two and was born before Robert married Cersei. Oh, and before you ask, no, I don't know who his mother is. Gendry is going to come over tomorrow after school finishes to start off with you. We'll see how it goes from there."

The next day, Arya stumbled her way into the kitchen after to school, only to be greeted by Jon and a man, who Arya assumed must have been Gendry, sitting at the kitchen bench.

"And here she is," Jon grinned, setting down a mug of coffee. "Gendry, this is Arya." Gendry smiled rather sheepishly in her direction and Jon got off his stool, making for the staircase. Arya dropped her bag down to the floor and ran a hand through her hair.

"Now, remember what I told you; she can be quite a handful," Arya shot a glare in Jon's direction but he didn't flinch, "Arya, behave. Have fun!" And then he was off up the stairs.

"Right," Arya said, awkwardly, "I'm going to get my stuff and get changed. I'll be back in a second."

Gendry nodded and she rushed up the stairs, pausing at the top to look back down at him. He was still sipping at his coffee, looking uncomfortable. She had noticed his dark blue eyes underneath that shock of black hair and she let her eyes travel down to his arms. He was wearing a grey t-shirt, in which his arms bulged out from. Rippling muscles suggesting long hours of manual labor. He must have sensed her stare because as she lifted her eyes back to his face, they locked with his own. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks and she quickly turned to her room to get changed.

* * *

When Gendry received an email from Ned Stark requesting that he tutor his youngest daughter for maths he was unsure. Gendry had tutored a kids in the past (anything to help raise some money) and that had been fine. Also, Ned was offering quite a lot of money for him to do this job. He knew Ned from when he was younger when the man had made it his own mission to check up on Robert Baratheon's bastards. They'd kept in contact ever since. Gendry assumed that having six children, including a bastard of his own, just gave him one of those fatherly instincts. What was throwing him off slightly was Ned's description of his daughter in the email.

_"Arya can be willful, at times. She may need a stern hand but also a bit of encouragement. I'm really hoping that you could help us out as she doesn't have anyone at home to support her."_

The last thing Gendry needed was to teach maths to a stubborn teenage girl with attitude problems. Gendry was rather stubborn himself, Gods, they called him "the Bull" back in high school. But the money. Gendry managed to pay rent, and he could afford his car – even if it was slightly dingy – but, being on his own most of the time, money wasn't something that he had much of. Gendry debated with himself for a while until finally giving in and just accepting the job.

When the day arrived, he had waited for Arya with Jon, her brother. They became friends easily, bonding over the whole 'illegitimate son' deal and he found himself getting invited to visit the pub some time for a drink with Jon and some of his friends.

Gendry was telling Jon about working at Tobho Mott's Auto Repair when Arya had stormed in. He wasn't really sure what he was expecting. She was small and lithe, with brown hair reaching down to her shoulders and sharp, grey eyes. He couldn't help but feel nervous about working with her and Jon's warnings weren't really helping at all. Then, she had stared at him from the top of the stairs and he couldn't help but feel like this was a terrible idea and that he was about to get attacked.

But she had surprised him. She came back down stairs, her arms full of notes and her maths textbook, and they set straight to work. He thought the attitude and stubbornness would scare him off but he actually found himself amused and fought right back with her, only to make her more aggressive. She challenged him so he challenged her right back. Jon had come back downstairs in the middle of Arya explaining how Gendry was "wrong and stupid" and then stuck around for Gendry to prove that his method was, in fact, correct. Luckily, he'd managed to get through their first session without any scratches and he'd found that he had rather enjoyed the time.

* * *

The timetable for Arya's tutoring was Wednesdays, straight after school. She would walk to Gendry's flat, using the address that he'd given her, with her maths work in her bag and then they would work for two hours. Then, he would drive her home and see her the next Wednesday. They'd decided to use Gendry's flat because it was near Arya's school and tutoring sessions at the Stark home would be a nightmare. Quiet would be impossible and she would probably never learn a think. Arya likes the timetable and she decides that she likes Gendry. He's one of the few people whose stupidity she can put up with. Of course, he isn't _stupid_, he's fantastic at linear algebra, but he's still stupid in his own Gendry way. He's definitely got a lot of nerve for dealing with Arya, as well. Most people tend to cower under her glare and admit defeat with whatever they are arguing about. Gendry _never_ backed down and it was usually, to Arya's utter displeasure, she who was proved wrong.

Where Gendry seemed shy at first, they became more comfortable with each other and he didn't hesitate to laugh at Arya's sarcastic comments and shot plenty of them right back. As the weeks turned into months, she found that she rather liked his presence. She also liked how somehow he was helping her pass maths without making her want to kill him in the process. Well, sometimes she wanted to hit him and sometimes she _did_ hit him but that was it.

On some weekends, Gendry would go out with Jon and his friends Sam, Grenn and Pyp. Arya couldn't help but feel slightly left out. She wasn't sure if she was angry with Gendry for stealing her brother or if she was angry with Jon for stealing her new friend. It was becoming clear that it was the latter.

So what if maybe Arya was a little bit annoyed that Jon got to have all the fun with Gendry? So what if maybe she wanted to have some fun with him outside of tutoring? It's not like Arya had many friends, she was allowed to be a little bit possessive of this one.

Although, sometimes when Gendry and Jon went out to watch sports matches or see films they would invite Arya along with them. She liked that. She liked to think of them as some kind of trio of misfits. Jon and Arya had never really fit in well with the rest of their family and Gendry didn't have much of a family at all, with him being left by his father as a child and his mother passing away in his teenage years. He did have two half siblings, though, but they were rarely in town.

She liked how things were, and she didn't want them to change.

* * *

Gendry couldn't help but feel absolutely content with the way things were going. And not just his tutoring with Arya, but his life in general. For the first time it seemed as though things were finally looking up for him. Along with successfully helping Arya with her studies, he'd also found a friend in her and her brother. He'd gained a pay rise at work as well and his struggle for money was fading away.

There was something nagging his mind, though. He realised he was frightened. He was frightened for the time when Arya would no longer need his help. She was becoming a constant in his life. Something solid and always there. He wasn't used to that. He didn't want it to go away.

Gendry waited outside Arya's school on one Wednesday afternoon. He'd never picked her up before but she would be receiving test results and he wanted to know how she went as soon as possible. Then he was going to take her to get some food (whether it was as a congratulations or a 'sorry, we'll work harder'). The bell chimed and a wave of students exited the large doors and made their way down the steps. He ignored the girls glancing at him over their shoulders and whispering excitedly to their friends.

Finally, Arya appeared in the crowd and she was running towards him with a massive grin on her face, waving a piece of paper in her left hand. She either did not notice or just didn't care about the amount of girls who were shooting daggers with their eyes at her as she made her way to him.

"I PASSED!" She shouted when she reached him and, before Gendry could comprehend what was happening, flung her arms around his neck and jumped on him. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around her, stumbling back a bit.

"Congratulations," he managed to choke out. She let go of him and brushed some hair out of her face. "Want to celebrate?"

She nodded, beaming, and he led her to the café. When they were sitting down with a bowl of hot chips in front of them, he asked what he had been planning to suggest ever since that nagging in his mind had begun.

"Arya, I don't want your family to pay for the tuition anymore,"

She blinked. "Why?"

"I got a raise at Mott's, I don't really need the money. You're family has been really generous with the amount you've been giving me and I don't want to ask that of you anymore."

"Oh, come on, we have plenty of money to give away. Plus, you're doing a great job and deserve to be paid well." She grinned.

But it wasn't just that. When it was over they would just go back to their normal lives. Gendry may see Jon here and there but he didn't want money and payments to be the basis of their friendship. _Now how can I say that without sounding like a complete idiot? _

"I really want to do this, Arya. You're my friend now, right? I want to help you as a friend and not for money." Nailed it. Arya sighed.

"Fine." She said and Gendry grinned, "but you're still stupid."

And then things went back to the way they were. Their study sessions hadn't changed all that much, but now there was the understanding that he was helping her out of friendship, not money. There were some things that were changing, though. Some days Arya would just come over after school and when Gendry was done with work to play video games and watch movies. Gendry had developed a new system with the tuition as well; if they worked well for the session she would be rewarded with an hour of video games. Gendry had to agree with Ned that the encouragement really helped. It made the work seem less pointless if she was working for something.

But again, there was something in the back of his mind telling him that he wasn't just doing this out of friendship. He knew that he'd never felt as proud as he did when other kids he had tutored got the hard questions correct. And he _knew_ that he'd never thought about kissing any of them either. He found himself thinking about her more often than not and sometimes she even made appearances in his dreams. Yeah, he was in deep shit.

* * *

Arya realised that she was falling for Gendry when she arrived at his flat on a Friday afternoon, only to be greeted by a girl. It never really occurred to her that there might actually be other females in Gendry's life apart from Arya.

The girl who answered the door was beautiful. She had short, black hair, similar to how Arya had her hair a few years ago. Her eyes were sparkling blue and she was small but had curves in all the right places, something that Arya lacked.

"Oh! Hello, was Gendry expecting you?" She smiled and let Arya walk through the door into his apartment. "He's just in the shower at the moment, should be out any minute."

"Oh, uh… I don't know if he'd be expecting me. Just thought I'd stop by, I guess."

"That's cool," said the girl who was making her way to the kitchen. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Arya nodded and sat on the couch. She couldn't help but notice how well the girl knew her way around Gendry's kitchen and she wondered if she was his girlfriend. Gendry had never mentioned anything about a girlfriend before. Did he need to?

"So, you're a friend of Gendry's? What's your name?" The girl asked, stirring Arya's tea and interrupting her thoughts. She handed Arya the mug and she took a sip.

"Yeah, I'm Arya." She said before anything else was said, a dripping wet Gendry entered the room, with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Arya almost choked on her tea at the sight. Her eyes betrayed her and she watched the water dripping from his hair, down along his chest to his stomach (oh and his abs were just ridiculous) and landing on the towel. She snapped her eyes up to his face and caught him looking slightly smug.

"So, you've met Mya." He said, looking back and forth between the two girls.

"Yeah, we were just getting to know each other. Now, put some clothes on, you idiot." Said Mya, pushing Gendry down the hallway and into his bedroom.

Mya sat down on the couch, chuckling to herself. "We're having a family game night," she explained, "Our brother, Edric, should be here soon. It's not often that we're all in the same city at the same time."

Arya almost kicked herself. _She's his sister. _How could she have missed that? Looking at Mya now it seemed almost impossible that Arya didn't see the similarities; the famous Baratheon black hair and blue eyes. Their resemblance was just _so_ obvious. Yet she couldn't help the sense of relief that washed over her. Humiliated, she stood up immediately.

"Oh, I should go, then."

"No, you don't have to go!" Gendry said, rushing back in the room and doing up the belt on his jeans. Arya saw Mya subtly raise an eyebrow towards Gendry and Gendry shoot a glare right back.

"No, I should be getting back anyway." Arya said, heading for the door. She couldn't help but appreciate the look of disappointment on Gendry's face. "I'll see you soon, Gendry. It was nice meeting you, Mya!"

* * *

"You're in so much trouble!"

"Shut up," Gendry snapped.

Arya had just left and Mya was helping him set up the Monopoly board. Gendry had a hard enough time convincing himself that he wasn't looking at Arya as more than a friend and Mya wasn't making it any easier.

"I mean that's like proper cradle snatching, she's seventeen, right?"

"I told you to shut up. I haven't _done_ anything."

"Oh, but you want to." She said in a low voice, smirking.

"Mya, leave it." Gendry warned when there was a knock on the door. Mya rolled her eyes and got up to answer it. Gendry's younger brother had a bag of various snacks in one hand and a 6-pack of beer in the other. Edric gave his sister a hug and made his way into the kitchen, nodding at Gendry and placing the contents on the bench.

"How are we all doing?" Edric grinned, grabbing three beers and passing them out. Edric sat down on the couch next to Gendry and Mya placed herself on a cushion on the ground in front of them, behind the coffee table.

"Quite well, thank you. But, Edric, you are never going to guess who our poor Gendry is _lusting_ over," Mya grinned as Edric raised his eyebrows in interest. Gendry groaned and rubbed his forehead; clearly his battle against Mya was lost.

"You know the Starks, right?" Mya asked.

"Of course," Edric nodded his head knowingly and nudged Gendry in the side. "So you're down with the lovely Sansa Stark. Who'd have thought?" Gendry groaned again and Mya bit her lip from laughing out, but it didn't stop the smirk. Edric's eyes widened and he looked back and forth between his two siblings.

"_Arya?_" He asked, astonished, and Mya couldn't stop herself from bursting out with laughter. Soon enough, Edric started laughing as well. Gendry, on the other hand, was not amused.

"Bro, you're in trouble." Edric stammered out through his laughter, unknowingly repeating what Mya had said just before he had arrived.

"Oh, come off it. She'll be eighteen on Thursday." Gendry said before taking a swig of beer. "Now let's all just forget that this conversation ever happened because I'm about to whip both of your arses in Monopoly."

But, yes, she was turning eighteen on Thursday and he would be attended her official birthday party on the following Friday. The party was held at the Stark's family residence and, it being a formal event, Gendry had managed to rent a suit. He had heard an enormous amount of complaining from Arya about the entire party, which had been planned entirely by Sansa and their mother, Catelyn. What Arya complained about the most, though, was the dress that she was being forced to wear. She had described it as a greenish-grey cowl-neck chiffon wrap dress. Gendry didn't have a clue what that even meant.

When the night finally arrived, Gendry stood in the corner of the room, beer in hand, next to Jon. They watched as Arya ran around with her younger brother, Rickon, causing her mother much worry about the furniture and Arya's dress, which turned out to look beautiful, even if Arya didn't think so. Gendry watched the scene with an affectionate smile.

"Do you love her?" Jon asked suddenly, causing Gendry to tense and panic.

"What?" He spluttered out. Jon turned to look him in the eyes, face showing absolutely no amusement to what he was asking.

"Do you love her?" He repeated in a deadpan voice.

"I –" He stammered and sighed. "I think so."

Jon sighed as well, running a hand through his unruly curls.

"Okay, but if you ever hurt her I won't hesitate to smash your head in, got that Waters?" He said, making Gendry gulp and nod. Jon rolled his eyes and clapped him on the shoulder before leaving him alone. So he had given Gendry his blessing. Jon just gave permission to make a move on his little sister. He didn't really know what to make of it.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, consisting of meeting friends of the Starks and allowing everyone to get to know a bit about Robert Baratheon's mystery son. He didn't get the chance to properly talk to Arya until it was late, he was leaving and she walked with him to the door.

"You look nice, by the way." Gendry said, feeling slightly stupid, just like she always calls him so.

Arya raised her eyebrows. "I look like an oak tree." She stated, gesturing to her acorn earrings and leafy necklace that he was certain Sansa made her wear.

Gendry chuckled, "Nice though, a nice oak tree."

Arya rolled her eyes and just as Gendry was about to leave he remembered the small package inside his pocket. Arya had clearly specified on the invitations that she did not want any gifts. She claimed that she would feel guilty about people spending money on her but Gendry knew that she just wouldn't like any of the presents that people would give her.

"Arya? I actually, uh, have something for you." He said staring at his hands. He lifted his eyes to lock them with hers. "Do you want to come outside for a second?"

"Oh," she said after a second, "Yeah, ok."

She followed him outside onto the terrace, closed the door and waited as he fished the small box out of his pockets.

"I know you said you didn't want presents but I saw this and I instantly thought of you, so I wanted to buy it for you." He said and they both stared at the box. He handed it to her and waited as she opened it. She let out a small gasp and smiled down and the necklace in the box. It was a silver chain and had a small wolf with its head thrown back in a howl hanging off it.

Before he could say anything more, Arya jumped on him, throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him. For a second, Gendry just stood there in shock before wrapping his arms around waist, lifting her up and hugging her back. The last time they had had this much physical contact was after she passed her test and it took a lot of restraint for him to not inhale her scent. When she unwound her arms from his neck, he set her back down.

"Well, I'm glad you like it!" Gendry smirked and Arya muttered something like _'Shut up, stupid'_ before lightly punching his chest.

Arya looked down at the necklace for a couple of seconds before smiling again and meeting his eyes. "I really do love it though, Gendry. Thank you." She said and then she placed a hand on his shoulder, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before hurrying back inside.

Gendry remained on the terrace, unable to move for over 5 minutes. _What just happened?_ Finally, he managed to stumble over to his car and drive home.

* * *

Two things were constantly passing through Arya's mind after she had kissed Gendry on the cheek. The first being, _'What have you done? You've ruined everything!'_ and the second being, _'Why didn't you kiss him properly?'_

But she had to banish the thoughts from her mind because exams were coming up. There was no time to think about a stupid boy, especially when that stupid boy was supposed to be helping her pass her maths exam.

They didn't talk about the kiss but Arya could feel the altered atmosphere. Gendry was more careful around her, focusing almost entirely on the work and not even completely enjoying himself when they played video games afterwards. At first she wasn't sure whether he was pulling away to reject her or because he liked her but was becoming easy to realise as she noticed Gendry's stares when he thought she wasn't looking and the knowing looks that Mya gave her whenever she was around. Jon had also asked about Gendry a lot more than before.

"He's your friend too," Arya had told Jon after he had nagged her about spending so much time with him, "If you want to hang out with him, call him."

But Arya knew that was not what Jon was asking about.

_Gendry wants me,_ Arya thought to herself, _he wants me just as much as I want him_.

Still, Arya put all her efforts into her schoolwork. She spent even more time at Gendry's than usual, using his flat as a place to study and rest. Her house was always so hectic and Gendry's was the perfect place to escape. Sometimes he helped her study but he mainly just let her be, occasionally checking on her to see if she was alright or getting her a snack or drink. Sometimes she would accidentally fall asleep on his couch, exhausted from all the work, and he'd have to wake her up to drive her home.

She'd gotten through most of her exams until she finally reached maths. She called Gendry in the morning and he had given her a pep talk and letting her know that he'd be there to pick her up afterwards. She sat the exam and she was mainly satisfied. Really, she couldn't guess what her result would be but she knew that with Gendry's help she did far better than she'd ever imagined herself doing a few months ago. So it was over, no more tutoring necessary. But Arya knew that this was only the beginning with Gendry.

She quickly strode down the steps, seeing Gendry immediately. He had his eyes on her, standing in front of his car wearing his black leather jacket. She restrained herself from sprinting towards him. She reached him and grinned.

"Arya, I have to tell –" She cut him off by pulling down on the collar of his jacket, making his eyes widen, and crashing her lips to his. He froze for a second under her lips but then, like he'd been holding back for so long, he brought his hands to the back of her head and delved his tongue into her mouth. When they finally broke apart she was almost breathless.

"Thank you for being such a great tutor," she managed, "Sorry, I _really_ wanted to do that and I also want to do it again, so what was it that you had to tell me?" Gendry laughed and rolled his eyes.

"You could have just been patient for one second," he sighed, smiling, and he bent down catch her lips with his.


End file.
